We are suckers for click bait slide shows, like this one from Good Housekeeping that listed the food fad of the year going all the way back to the 70s. We were especially interested in the foods that were faddish the years we were born.

Instead of our usual segment dedicated to what we’ve been cooking lately, we talked about this things we most cooking the most during the summer, when pots of soups are simply unthinkable.

Recently a pair of tiny spatulas changed Joy’s kitchen life quite unexpectedly. So we used it as an excuse to go over all our favorite small but mighty tools.

As recipe developers, we are often cooking for money. We explore how that differs from the reason we got into this line of work in the first place: Cooking for love.

In our At the Market segment, we talked about the good old Italian eggplant.

Next week, the democratic national convention will descend on Philadelphia. And all the media outlets want to tell visitors where to eat. We talked over The Washington Post’s picks.

In our What’s for Dinner segment we talked about the merits of a classic Italian pairing, pasta and legumes. Joy is a fan of this recipe.

We went out of our usual subject area a bit to discuss the intersection of food and beauty. It isn’t a very far jump from scrutinizing food labels for artificial ingredients to looking at what’s in your shampoos and lotions, too. This discussion was inspired by one of Joy’s new favorite podcasts, Fat Mascara, which is all about beauty products and not about food at all.

We talk a lot about meal planning, but sometimes we don’t make it to the grocery store. What happens then? We share strategies for living off your pantry, fridge, and freezer supplies.

Tomatoes are starting to pop up at our farmers’ markets, and it’s one of the best things about this time of year.

Next, we chatted about the meal kit trend and our perspectives on them. Do you subscribe to one? What do you think?

Recommended recipe! In this new occasional segment, we tell you about a new-to-us recipe that we think is worth making. First one up is this marinated celery recipe that Joy has made several times lately.

After that, we shared our methods for keeping cool in the kitchen when the weather gets steamy. Suggestions include. cooking early in the day, heading outside, using your slow cooker, batch cooking, and relying more on ready-made proteins that you can buy at the grocery store and then assemble into a meal.